A US-based church suing the Hong Kong International School (HKIS) for breaching an operating agreement sold three properties in the city for a combined US$22 million in 2019 to pay its debts, according to its official media platform.
The move prompted Hong Kong’s Lutheran church to suspend its partnership with the Lutheran Council–Missouri Synod (LCMS) that year, with the local group saying at the time that the sale had gone against donors’ wishes and it reserved the right to take legal action.
Last month, the US church warned of a deepening deficit over time if there was no significant boost in revenue.
The missionary organisation, which co-founded HKIS in 1966, has sued the Hong Kong International School Association Limited (HKISAL) for allegedly violating the operating agreement.
The church is threatening to evict the school, which it co-founded in 1966, from the Repulse Bay and Tai Tam campuses and create a new private institution in its place.
LCMS also demanded that HKIS management pay the church an indemnity of US$1.75 million, with the figure covering the fees of local property advisers and lawyers in Hong Kong and the United States.
In an article published by the church’s own newspaper in June 2019, the synod’s board of directors revealed that the organisation had a “historic debt” and the sale of the Hong Kong properties had helped to clear some of it.
